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Commentary, salary benchmarks and hiring trends from twenty years in the accounting & finance market.
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The EOFY Career Decision Stay, Go, or Stop Kidding Yourself
Should you stay, go, or stop deferring the decision? A practical framework for finance professionals weighing up their next move at EOFY.
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Some of the Best Candidates Move in July. Most Businesses Aren’t Ready.
July is when some of Australia's best finance candidates start moving. Here's why most hiring processes aren't ready to catch them.
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Pay Negotiation: Get Paid Properly Without Torching the Relationship
How to negotiate salary properly, without torching the relationship with an employer before you've even started.
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Six things Boards actually evaluate when hiring a CFO
Six things boards actually evaluate when hiring a CFO, and what finance leaders should prepare for beyond the technical brief.
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AI in Recruitment. If Your CFO Search Starts With a Chatbot, Your CFO Search Is Over.
If your CFO search starts with a chatbot, your CFO search is already over. Where AI helps in recruitment, and where it can't replace judgement.
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"Not Ready Yet" Is the Most Frustrating Phrase in a High-Performer's Career
“Not ready yet” is the most frustrating phrase in a high performer's career. How to tell if it's true, or just an easy excuse.
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Beyond the Box-Ticking: How to Get Real Value from Reference Checks
Most reference checks produce legal-safe noise, not signal. Here's how to get real value from the process.
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The Sideways Moves That Upgrade Your Career
Not every career upgrade moves you up. How sideways moves, sector switches and scope trade-offs can accelerate your career.
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Retained Search Isn’t “Premium”. It’s Risk Management (and Here’s Why)
Retained search isn't about being “premium”. It's risk management for your most critical hires, and here's why that matters.
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The Interview Answer Bank for Finance Leaders
Twelve interview questions finance leaders should be ready for, with frameworks and sample answers to prepare with confidence.
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Your Career Narrative: 3 Things to Bed Down before interviewing in 2026.
Three things to bed down in your career narrative before interviewing in 2026, so you can tell a clear, credible story.
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Hiring in 2026: What’s moving, What’s holding you back, & how to win talent early
What's moving, what's holding businesses back, and how to win accounting & finance talent early in 2026.
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Onboarding: Show Them the Love!!!
Onboarding is where retention is won or lost. Why the first weeks deserve as much care as the search itself.
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What Leaders Owe Candidates When Giving Off-the-Record Feedback
What leaders owe candidates when giving off-the-record feedback, and why honesty early saves everyone time later.
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Businesses on the Grow: Lessons on Scaling from CFOs of High-Growth Companies
Lessons from CFOs who have scaled high-growth companies, and why the CFOs who get it right build the finance function ahead of the growth, not behind it.
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Mind-Reading Isn’t a Hiring Strategy: What Happened to Proper Briefings in Modern Recruitment?
The hiring brief has quietly disappeared from modern recruitment. Here’s why that costs more time than it saves, and what a proper briefing covers.
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Beyond the Funnel: How to Hire Senior Finance Leaders Who Actually Move the Needle
The standard attract-screen-assess-select hiring funnel was built for volume, not senior finance leadership. Here’s a practical alternative that actually works.
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Death by Interview: Why Your Hiring Process is Losing Great Leaders
At senior level, a long, poorly managed hiring process doesn’t just slow things down, it costs you the candidate. Here’s what’s actually going wrong.
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Culture Fit is Dead. Long Live Culture Add.
Relying too heavily on culture fit is quietly holding finance teams back. Here’s why culture add is the better lens, and how to actually hire for it.
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When CFOs Become Chief Firefighters: Why Finance Leaders Are Burnt Out
CFO burnout usually isn’t a resilience problem. It’s what happens when a finance leader absorbs every gap a business hasn’t resourced properly.
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What Really Matters in Financial Reporting Skills for Today’s CFOs
Financial reporting has moved beyond closing the books on time. Here’s what modern CFOs need to get right, from real-time data to the human side of reporting.
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When Good Candidates Break Bad: The Warning Signs You Can’t Ignore
The CV was immaculate, the interview went brilliantly, and then things started to go wrong. Here are the real red flags to watch for, before and after you hire.
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Internal Promotions vs. External Hiring. How to Decide?
Promoting internally or hiring externally for a senior finance role is about more than filling a vacancy. Here’s a practical framework for making the call.
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Seven Insightful Interview Questions to Ask Prospective Employees
Seven interview questions that go beyond the standard script, with the reasoning behind each one and what a strong answer actually reveals.
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What’s Your Worth? How to Get the Compensation Package You Deserve
A practical guide to salary negotiation for finance professionals: when to raise it, how to handle a shifting scope, and the strategies that actually work.
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ESG in Finance: What Finance Leaders Need to Know When Hiring
As ESG reporting standards tighten across Australia, finance leaders need a deliberate approach to hiring the talent that can actually deliver on it.
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How Not to Decline Job Offers. Professionalism, Communication & Counter Offers
Declining a job offer is a normal part of a career. How you handle it shapes your reputation, your recruiter relationship and your network. Here’s how.
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Navigating Internal Aspirations in Executive Search: Balancing Opportunity and Organisational Needs
When a well-regarded internal candidate wants the role you’re running an external search for, here’s how to keep the process fair and keep them engaged.
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Attention to Talent: Payroll
The biggest mistake in payroll hiring is filtering candidates by which system they’ve used, rather than the IQ and EQ that predicts success in the role.
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Attention to Talent: Financial Planning & Analysis
FP&A used to be reserved for large enterprises. Cheaper BI tools have changed that, and with it, what strong FP&A candidates are actually looking for in a role.
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